I’d been assigned to write a story about Pennsylvania Station, but I wanted to get a caboose-eye view of the decaying tunnels leading up to it, because the only imaginable way the station could be any worse is if it were underwater. Penn, the Western Hemisphere’s busiest train station, serves 430,000 travelers every weekday—more than LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark airports combined.
— Bloomberg Businessweek

"As the gateway to America’s largest city," Devin Leonard writes in his piece for Bloomberg Businessweek, "Penn Station should inspire awe, as train stations do in London, Paris, Tokyo, and other competently managed metropolises. Instead, it embodies a particular kind of American failure—the... View full entry

Pier 55, the elaborate $250 million performing arts center on an undulating pier in the Hudson River, is back from the dead.

Forty-three days ago, Barry Diller, the entertainment mogul behind the plan, pulled the plug on the project [...]

Now, in an agreement brokered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Mr. Diller agreed to revive the project, known as “Diller Island,” and opponents who had filed a series of lawsuits to stop the plan agreed to drop their legal battle.
— The New York Times

In never-ending-money-and-politics-tale news: "Diller Island," the controversial Pier 55 park structure floating in New York's Hudson River, isn't so dead after all after reports of a Governor Cuomo-brokered agreement between billionaire financier Barry Diller and opponents surfaced yesterday. "In... View full entry

At a press conference this morning in the under-construction space, Governor Cuomo announced that major work has begun on transforming the James A. Farley Building into the state-of-the-art, 225,000-square-foot Moynihan Train Hall. Along with the news that the $1.6 billion project will create 12,000+ construction jobs and 2,500 permanent jobs, come new renderings of the station, showing more exterior views and looks at the 700,000-square-foot shopping and dining concourse.
— 6sqft

Since Governor Cuomo unveiled his plans for a revamped LaGuardia Airport two years ago, the cost has ballooned from $4 to $8 billion, with $4 billion alone going towards Delta’s rebuilt facilities. Construction has finally begun on this part of the project, with the Port Authority signing a long-term lease with Delta Air Lines, which “marks the beginning of construction on the final component of the entirely new, unified airport at LaGuardia," according to a press release from the Governor.
— 6sqft

The project, part of a broader plan called “New York Crossings,” would outfit the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels — and the Port Authority’s George Washington Bridge — with pulsating, multicolored LED lights that can be choreographed with each other, with the Empire State Building and with One World Trade.
— Politico

MTA's crumbling infrastructure has been making headlines since April and the situation does not appear to be getting any better for NYC transiters; three-quarters of the city's subway lines are plagued by chronic delays and frustrated riders continue to overcrowd the system... View full entry

The urgency to fix the station has reached a peak. But this also creates a great occasion to get something done — something grander than Mr. Cuomo's current plan, a project born of political expediency.
— The New York Times

For the majority of commuters in New York, New Jersey and the surrounding areas, Penn Station has been the source of many headaches, late arrivals to work, and chaos as of late. Throughout the month of April, multiple trains have been derailed, a train got stuck at Penn Station, there have been... View full entry

This morning Governor Cuomo announced that the state would invest in building a $200 million Empire State Trail that would span 750 miles connecting the bottom of Manhattan all the way to the border of Canada. The project would build upon two existing but incomplete trailways—the Hudson River Valley Greenway and the Erie Canalway—and become the largest, state multi-use trail in the nation.
— 6sqft

The published renderings that accompanied the announcement were not terribly reassuring, as they depicted a very long curved terminal with gangly tentacles raised over plane taxiways that hinted at torsos of praying mantises: an awkward rather than a graceful vault.
— 6sqft.com

Related: A new LaGuardia is the "airport that New York deserves", says Gov. Cuomo View full entry

'We are transforming LaGuardia into a globally-renowned, 21st century airport that is worthy of the city and state of New York. It’s the perfect metaphor for what we can achieve with the ambition and optimism and energy that made this the Empire State in the first place, and I want to thank our many partners for joining us to build the airport that New York deserves.' — Gov. Cuomo
— governor.ny.gov

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo alongside Vice President Joe Biden officially unveiled the proposed design for the new LaGuardia Airport earlier this week. The $4 billion revamp will transform the airport into a single, structurally unified main terminal, including expanded transportation access... View full entry